List of scientific units named after people
This is a list of scientific units named after people. For other lists of eponyms (names derived from people) see eponym. Note that by convention, the name of the unit is properly written in all-lowercase, but its abbreviation is capitalized.
- becquerel (Bq), radioactivity – Henri Becquerel
- degree Celsius (°C), temperature – Anders Celsius
- coulomb (C), electric charge – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
- farad (F), capacitance – Michael Faraday
- gray (Gy), absorbed dose of radiation - Louis Harold Gray
- henry (H), inductance – Joseph Henry
- hertz (Hz), frequency – Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
- joule (J), energy, work, heat – James Prescott Joule
- newton (N), force – Isaac Newton
- ohm (Ω) , electrical resistance – Georg Ohm
- pascal (Pa), pressure – Blaise Pascal
- siemens (S), electrical conductance – Werner von Siemens
- sievert (Sv), radiation dose equivalent – Rolf Sievert
- tesla (T), magnetic flux density – Nikola Tesla
- volt (V), electric potential, electromotive force – Alessandro Volta
- watt (W), power, radiant flux – James Watt
- weber (Wb), magnetic flux – Wilhelm Eduard Weber
- biot (Bi), electric current – Jean-Baptiste Biot
- debye (D), electric dipole moment – Peter Debye
- eotvos (E), gravitational gradient – Loránd Eötvös
- galileo (Gal), acceleration – Galileo Galilei
- gauss (G or Gs), magnetic flux density – Carl Friedrich Gauss
- gilbert (Gb), magnetomotive force – William Gilbert
- goeppert-mayer (GM), two-photon absorption cross section – Maria Goeppert-Mayer
- kayser (kayser), wavenumber – Heinrich Kayser
- maxwell (Mx), magnetic flux – James Clerk Maxwell
- oersted (Oe), magnetic field strength – Hans Christian Ørsted
- poise (P), dynamic viscosity – Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille
- rayl, acoustic impedance – Lord Rayleigh
- stokes (S or St), kinematic viscosity – George Gabriel Stokes
No longer in use
Others
- ångström (Å), distance – Anders Jonas Ångström
- Baud, symbol rate – Emile Baudot
- Bark scale, psychoacoustical scale – Heinrich Barkhausen
- brewster (B), stress optic coefficient – David Brewster
- centimorgan, recombinantion frequency – Thomas Hunt Morgan
- curie (Ci), radioactivity – Marie and Pierre Curie
- dalton (Da), atomic mass – John Dalton
- darcy (D), permeability, – Henry Darcy
- decibel (dB) dimensionless proportions and ratios, e.g. relative power levels – Alexander Graham Bell
- degree Rankine (°R), temperature – William John Macquorn Rankine
- Dobson unit, atmospheric ozone – Gordon Dobson
- Erlang unit (erl), dimensionless volume of telecommunications traffic – Agner Krarup Erlang
- degree Fahrenheit (°F), temperature – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
- fermi (fm), distance – Enrico Fermi
- Hounsfield scale, radiodensity – Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield
- jansky (Jy), electromagnetic flux – Karl Jansky
- langley (ly), solar radiation – Samuel Pierpont Langley
- langmuir (L), gas exposure dose – Irving Langmuir
- Mach number (Ma), relative speed – Ernst Mach
- neper (Np), relative power level – John Napier
- degree Öchsle (°Oe), density – Ferdinand Öchsle
- Rockwell scale (HR), indentation hardness – Stanley Rockwell
- röntgen (R), dosage of X-rays or gamma radiation – Wilhelm Röntgen
- Richter magnitude, earthquake power – Charles Francis Richter
- siegbahn (xu), distance, – Manne Siegbahn
- Scoville units, capsaicin content of chili peppers – Wilbur Scoville
- svedberg (S or Sv), sedimentation rate – Theodor Svedberg
- sverdrup (Sv), volume transport rate – Harald Sverdrup
- torr (Torr), pressure – Evangelista Torricelli
- troland (Td), luminance (human eye) – Leonard Troland
No longer in use
- Mercalli intensity scale, earthquake effects – Giuseppe Mercalli
- degree Réaumur (°R), temperature – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
- degree Delisle (°D), temperature – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle
- degree Newton (°N), temperature – Isaac Newton
- degree Rømer (°Rø), temperature – Ole Rømer
- degree Baumé (°Bé), density – Antoine Baumé
- einstein (E), photochemistry – Albert Einstein
- poncelet (p), power – Jean-Victor Poncelet
- faraday (Fd), electrical charge – Michael Faraday
- hartley (Hart), information – Ralph Hartley
See also